Singapore’s Sembmarine buys Norway’s LMG Marine for $20M

Singapore’s offshore rig builder Sembcorp Marine Ltd will buy Norway’s LMG Marin AS $20 million, getting hold of a cache of design patents and expertise in naval architectural design, engineering and technology development.

Bergen-based LMG is a naval architecture as well as ship design and engineering house, with its project portfolio spanning floating structures, platforms and a wide variety of ship types, such as drillships; floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSO); floating storage and offloading vessels (FSO); offshore support vessels (OSV); LNG carriers; LNG-powered ships; car ferries; and cruise ships.

LMG originated several key designs adopted by Sembcorp Marine, including the Espadon drillship design; the FSO design used in the ongoing construction of the Company’s newbuild FSO for deployment in the UK North Sea; as well as the Gravifloat modular LNG and LPG platform solutions that are a cost-competitive alternative to FSRU, FLNG and land-based terminals.

The Robusto FPSO hull design, customized for operation in Brazil and West Africa, is another notable LMG creation, Sembmarine said.

Following the acquisition, LMG becomes an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Sembcorp Marine.

“Through the strategic acquisition of LMG, Sembcorp Marine further strengthens its intellectual property and knowledge to execute leading-edge design and engineering solutions for the global offshore and marine sectors,” said Sembcorp Marine President and CEO Wong Weng Sun. “This, in turn, supports our ongoing efforts to move up the value chain so that we can compete better and do more for our customers and partners.”